Netanyahu: We’ll Respond Strongly to Every Rocket

PM jabs at Hamas - "We will respond strongly to every shooting” - and at Fatah for its incitement. Another round of fighting in Gaza is foreseen.<br/>

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Hillel Fendel, 10/01/10 12:57 | updated: 12:36

Rocket plume

Israel news photo

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s remarks before today’s Cabinet meeting focused on the recent rocket attacks from Gaza: “Twenty rockets and mortar shells were fired from Gaza last week… The IDF responded immediately, attacking rocket-manufacturing facilities and tunnels through which Iran smuggles rockets to Gaza. Our policy is clear: Every missile or other attack will be met with a strong response.”

Last week’s rockets landed near Ashkelon and Netivot, in addition to the closer and more frequent targets in the western Negev. No one was hurt in the attacks.Ex-Commanding Officer of the IDF Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yom Tov Samiya says another clash between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is inevitable.

Netanyahu did not restrict his strong remarks to Hamas, and lashed out at Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah as well: “Not only rockets endanger our security, but also words. Those who name a Ramallah square after a terrorist who murdered tens of Israelis [38] on the Coastal Highway [in 1978] are encouraging terrorism.”

Hamas blames the IDF for the reported death or wounding of three Gazan Arabs over the past two days. The IDF denies any involvement.

A former Commanding Officer of the IDF Southern Command, Maj.-Gen. Yom Tov Samiya, says that another clash between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is inevitable.

“We are now facing another round [of fighting] in Gaza,” Samiya told Army Radio on Sunday morning. “I don’t believe that Hamas will surrender or change its ways without having been made to suffer a much stronger attack than that which we gave them last year in Operation Cast Lead. It must be a more focused blow, with longer -range consequences, and a take-over of certain areas in Gaza. Hamas must be made to understand that it loses territory as a result of provoking us.”